22 August 2013

There's a new book out about dragons called Dragons or Dinosaurs? by Derek Isaacs.

It turns out that the dragons that are so often mentioned in the Bible are real after all! Here's what Mr. Isaacs says about them:

The Old Testament scribes wrote that they saw creatures, prowling, hissing, swimming, and even breathing fire. ... I will shine a spotlight for all to see that the Bible speaks of dragons as real. ... Because what is harder to believe, that dragons are real, or that Jesus Christ is the author of life and the Savior of all humanity?

To help you with your decision about dragons (and Jesus), here's a list of all the verses in the King James Version that mention them. (Dragons, that is.)

But be careful. If you reject God's dragons, you'll probably also reject God's son. Because as Mr. Isaacs rightly points out, one is about as absurd as the other.

19 August 2013

I never thought I'd see the day when the SAB was mentioned by Herman Cain. But it happened today.

Mr. Cain wrote an article in The Canada Free Press about the Gideon vs. Skeptic's Annotated Bible competition that is now taking place in Georgia's state parks. In it, he explains that Governor Nathan Deal decided to allow atheists to place their literature alongside Gideon Bibles.

Nathan Deal, who said that the state could hardly be seen to be establishing an official religion just because it allowed one group to donate Bibles. Besides, Deal said, if atheists wanted to donate atheist books, no one would stop them either.

But Mr. Cain doubts that many people will want to read the SAB.

The atheists are going to do just that. I’m having a hard time thinking that many people will want to relax on their vacation while reading The Skeptics Annotated Bible, but this is America so the atheists can give it their best shot.

And he's probably right about that.

But I bet the SABs will get more reading time than the Gideon Bibles. Because as anyone who has ever picked up a Gideon Bible knows -- the Bible is boring.

18 August 2013

It's a website (http://www.bibviz.com/) that displays various categories at the SAB in an interactive form. It's hard to describe and screenshots can't capture the interactive part. You've just got to go there to see for yourself.

The first plot shows the 474 contradictions that are listed at the SAB. When you pass your mouse over the lines on the chart, individual contradictions are highlighted, showing the verses involved. If you click on the highlighted line, it'll take you to the contradiction at the SAB.

[The blue lines at the bottom of the chart represent the chapters in the Bible, with the length scaled by the length of the chapter. (I'm not sure if that's the number of verses, words, or characters.) Clicking on a line will take you to that chapter at the Bible Gateway (not the SAB).]

Here's the cruelty category graph.

It shows the number of cruel verses in each book of the Bible. The width of the bar is scaled by the length of the book, and the height by the number of cruel verses. It is similar to the my previous analysis, except this plot seems to use the number of verses instead of the number of passages listed at the SAB. (I'm not sure about this, though. If you figure that out, let us know in the comments.)

There are also graphs for the SAB categories of Science, Misogyny, and Homosexuality. Fun stuff.

We have donated 100 copies of the Skeptic's Annotated Bible to be placed in the cabins in two Georgia State Parks this afternoon.

Ed Buckner (former president of the American Atheists) is placing them in Red Top Mountain State Park and A.H. Stephens State Park. Other books to be donated include Faith Fear Fact Fantasy by the late Dr. John Henderson and Why I am not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq. (These two titles were donated by the American Atheists.)

Then Saul tries to kill David, but David’s wife, Michal, helped him escape.

So Saul sent messengers to find David, but they found Samuel and a group of prophesying prophets instead.

And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them. 19:20a

When the messengers saw everyone prophesying, the Spirit of God came upon them and they started prophesying too.

The Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied. 19:20b

When Saul found out that his messengers were prophesying, he sent more messengers--and when they got to the prophesying party, they started “prophesying likewise.”

When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. 19:21a

And when Saul heard that his second set of messengers were prophesying, he sent a third group of messengers and “they prophesied also.”

And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also.19:21b

After sending the three groups of messengers who all began prophesying, Saul decided to go there himself. As soon as he arrived, the Spirit of God came upon Saul also, and he began prophesying.

And he [Saul] went thither to Naioth in Ramah: and the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied. 19:23

And not only did Saul prophesy, but he stripped off all of his clothes “also.” Apparently when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon you and you start prophesying, you’ve got to take off all your clothes. God likes to see what he’s dealing with.

08 August 2013

You probably missed it, but last night, just after sundown, the crescent moon was visible in the western sky, marking the end of Ramadan. So the month of sleeping all day and partying all night is over. Now it's feast time, bitches! If you're Muslim, that is.

The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, forbade fasting on these two days - the day you break your fast (after Ramadan), and the day you eat from your sacrifice (after Hajj) . (Sunan Ibn Majah)

So I'm fasting today. All day. In honor of Muhammad (Peanut Butter and Jelly Be Upon Him).

We packed the car with SABs and headed out to a nice-looking neighborhood, just far enough away that no one would recognize us. There were four of us: my wife, Carole, my son, Philip, one of Philip's friends and me. As we drove to the site we rehearsed our script and developed responses to the reactions that we expected to have. When we arrived, we split up into pairs and went in opposite directions down the street.

The first house that Carole and I came to had a fence and a large dog that came out to greet us. The dog was pleasant enough but the owner was not. He growled, "We're Catholics" and from the look on his face we decided not to show him the wonderful book we were carrying.

The next few houses had cars parked in the driveways and looked occupied. But no one answered the door when we knocked.

We did get a few people to come to the door, but the results were always discouraging. One said, "We go to church every Sunday and have plenty of Bibles. We don't need another." Others just said, "No thanks." No one was interested in whatever it was we trying to give away.

The other pair of door-knockers had similar experiences. All four of us were convinced that we could continue all afternoon and not give away a single SAB.

So the correct answer was zero, and the closest to that was Pecos B who guessed 1%. (If you'd like the prize, Pecos B, send me an email with your address and I'll send you the 2nd edition of DWB.)

It was an interesting experience though. I felt a bit like Walter White and a bit like Jesus -- spoiling people's Saturday afternoon while forcing unwanted views upon them.

There's a good reason for that, of course. We (my son Philip and I) chickened out. But we're going to do it tomorrow.

Here's our plan. We'll start with this:

"Hello, my name is Philip and this is Steve, we're here today handing out Bibles for free to anyone who's interested."

Then, depending on the response, we'll go from there. But however people respond, we're going to be polite and non-argumentative. If they are interested, we'll give them an SAB; if not, we'll leave.

I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow.

In the meantime, it might be fun to guess the outcome. What percentage of householders will accept a free SAB? Give your prediction in the comments. Whoever guesses closest gets a free copy of the 2nd Edition of Drunk With Blood. (We're also getting guesses from twitter and facebook. Those will be valid as well.)